the verbal stem used in a few specific names, as spring-beetle (see quot.); spring-hare, the jumping hare of South Africa; spring-jack, -lobster (see quots.).
1835. J. Duncan, Beetles (Nat. Lib.), 159. This operation is attended with a sharp snapping noise, which has caused these insects to be termed click-beetles, in addition to the names of skipjacks and *spring-beetles, by which they are likewise known in England.
1900. Daily Express, 27 June, 7/1. We could hear them probing a suspicious-looking *spring hare’s burrow.
1848. Proc. Berw. Nat. Club, II. 327. A mechanism … which … causes them to rise with a jerk, accompanied with a snapping noise, whence they have been named ‘clicks’ or *‘spring-jacks.’
1879. E. P. Wright, Anim. Life, 533. Here are to be placed the *Spring Lobsters (Palinuridæ), the Cray-fish (Astacidæ).
